FOUND A GRAVE

An American lead actor and supporting actor, Glenn Corbett was born Glenn Edwin Rothenburg on August 17, 1933, the son of a garage mechanic. After serving time in the United States Navy as a Seabee, he met his wife Judy at Occidental College, and with her encouragement, he began acting in campus theater plays. He was seen by a talent scout and was signed to a contract with Columbia Pictures.  His film debut was in The Crimson Kimono (1959); it was followed with supporting roles in The Mountain Road (1960) and Man on a String (1960). He took the lead role in William Castle’s suspense thriller, Homicidal (1961).  In 1963, Corbett replaced George Maharis (who played Buz Murdock) on the CBS television series Route 66. Corbett, playing Lincoln Case, co-starred with Martin Milner during part of the third season and the fourth, and final, season of the series (1963–1964). In 1964–1965 he had a role on Twelve O’Clock High as Lt. Tom Lockridge for two episodes.  Corbett’s other television roles in the early- to late-1960s were as Wes Macauley on It’s a Man’s World (1962–1963), with co-stars Ted Bessell, Randy Boone and Michael Burns in the role of Wes’s younger brother, Howie. He was featured in 1964 as “Dan Collins” in an episode of Gunsmoke titled “Chicken”, in which a man gets an undeserved reputation as a gunman when he’s found at a way station with four dead outlaws at his feet. In the 1965–1966 season, Corbett guest starred on the ABC western The Legend of Jesse James. Glenn also guest starred in an episode of The Virginian titled “The Awakening”, in which his character was a destitute former Minister, David Henderson, who has had a crisis of faith, comes to Medicine Bow just as a dispute breaks out at a local mine over safety issues. Original air date: 10/13/1965. Corbett also appeared as “Chance Reynolds”, a regular cast member on the NBC-TV western The Road West (1966–1967), with co-stars Barry Sullivan, Kathryn Hays, Andrew Prine, Brenda Scott, and Kelly Corcoran.

He is probably best remembered by science fiction fans for his guest starring role in the second season Star Trek episode “Metamorphosis” (1967) as Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, opposite Elinor Donahue who played Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford.  In 1971, Corbett had a guest appearance with Mariette Hartley on Gunsmoke in an episode titled “Phoenix”.  In movies, Corbett also starred with John Wayne in the film Chisum (1970), as sheriff Pat Garrett, opposite Wayne’s role as Lincoln County rancher John Chisum. He again starred with the Duke in the film Big Jake (1971), as a half Apache outlaw named O’Brien, opposite Wayne’s character as rancher Jacob McCandles. Later in the 1970s he had the lead role in Nashville Girl (1976) and in Universal’s war epic Midway (1976).  During the 1970s Glenn also had guest starring roles on the television shows The Mod Squad, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Police Woman, The Rockford Files and Barnaby Jones.  In 1977, Glenn joined the cast of the NBC daytime soap opera, The Doctors, playing alongside four-time Emmy winning actress Kim Zimmer, as newlyweds Jason and Nola Aldrich. Glenn stayed with The Doctors until 1981.  Throughout the 1980s, Corbett stayed busy playing a cast regular in the long-running television series Dallas. Corbett played Paul Morgan on the television series from 1983–1984 and then from 1986–1988. After his character was written off the show, he stayed with the Lorimar Television production company for three more years as its dialogue director.  He is probably best remembered by science fiction fans for his guest starring role in the second season Star Trek episode “Metamorphosis” (1967) as Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive.  Corbett, who was a native of El Monte, California and a veteran of the Navy, died of lung cancer at the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 59. He was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. He had two children, Jason (b. early 1960) and Jocelyn (b. late 1961), with his wife Judy Daniels.